
13. Amazon
If there was ever a company designed to become more influential in the face of global economic collapse and a pandemic, it’s Amazon. In 2019 before everything hit the fan, the company grew by a whopping 21% and took in $232,887,000,000. Once the crisis began, Amazon’s founder and president, Jeff Bezos, became the first trillionaire in world history.
The company was founded with the idea that people didn’t need to go to a store to do their shopping. Instead, they could purchase what they needed online and have it delivered for free. Without a storefront serving as a middleman, Amazon could offer its products for cheaper than competitors. When people were suddenly no longer able to go to stores for fear of becoming infected, Amazon was able to fill in the gap.
Add to that the fact that it already had a well-developed platform for streaming content on Amazon Prime and eBooks on Kindle. When people had to start staying at home and entertaining themselves, many turned to Amazon. Yet the company endured a high level of controversy, not only because Bezos raked in so much money, but also because many workers were fired for protesting unsafe working conditions that exposed them to the virus. Additionally, there are concerns that Amazon has been evading taxes; many believe that, after all, a company so large should be paying its fair share.